Way to grow

Thursday

Jun 26, 2008 at 6:00 AMJun 27, 2008 at 6:30 AM

By Pamela H. Sacks TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Stephen and Valerie Loring have a child-friendly oasis at their home on Lexington Circle in Holden.

When they bought the house in 1993, the Lorings purchased the adjacent lot to keep it from being developed. Their son, Robert, and his family lived nearby. One day, Mrs. Loring had the feeling she ought to use the land for the benefit of her grandchildren.

“I wanted to build something that would excite them and bring them to an appreciation of nature and its beauty,” Mrs. Loring said while seated with her husband in a family room that overlooks a thickly wooded backyard. “It’s become all the more necessary with the Internet, iPods and Gameboys.”

In 1999, Mrs. Loring contacted a pair of landscape designers in Connecticut. They created a play space with a path leading from the driveway through ornamental grasses to an open area surrounded by blueberry bushes and plants. Today, butterflies, bees and dragonflies abound. A ledged outcropping serves as a picnic spot; a gazebo offers a quiet place to reflect. Woodlands slope to a 2-acre pond.

Mrs. Loring recalled that the grandchildren, Heather, Gregory and Jacqueline — who are now 15, 13 and 10 — took to the garden like bees to nectar.

“They were up here all the time,” Mrs. Loring said. “It was exciting to put it together.”

The Lorings were hardly alone in their sense that children need to be outside exploring and having fun — that their physical and mental health are somehow connected with the outdoors. But the Lorings, like many other people, couldn’t quite articulate what they intuitively knew.

Then three years ago, Richard Louv, a journalist from San Diego, wrote a book titled “Last Child in the Woods,” in which he claimed that children were suffering from “nature-deficit disorder.” Mr. Louv cited studies indicating that children who spend too much time indoors with TVs and computers tend to suffer from emotional and physical problems, including obesity and depression. He maintained that they grow into adults with little connection to the natural world and without a sense that it is worth preserving.

Mrs. Loring was among Mr. Louv’s fans, and she was far from alone. His book hit a nerve and launched an international back-to-nature movement.

“There was a perfect storm of trends coming together,” Mr. Louv said in an interview. “People didn’t have a language to describe this. There was a shock of recognition. There were people working on this issue long before the book came along, but it was not on the front burner and the book helped stimulate what followed.”

A revised edition of “Last Child in the Woods” came out earlier this year, and Mr. Louv is on the go delivering his message across the country. He has spoken at the Massachusetts Audubon Society educators’ conference and, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Trust for Public Land, at Bancroft School in Worcester.

The Trust for Public Land puts transactions together to conserve land. The organization recently worked a deal for the town of Princeton by negotiating the acquisition of property known as the Four Corners from Fox Hill Builders Inc. and assembling the financing. The Trust for Public Land also has worked with the city of Worcester to conserve five major parcels of watershed land to protect the reservoir system.

Craig A. MacDonnell, the trust’s Massachusetts director, said his group’s mission is a good fit with Mr. Louv’s message.

“In Richard’s perspective, anytime you have a piece of conservation land that allows people and kids to get on the land, you’ve got something to talk about and cherish,” Mr. MacDonnell said. “The projects we are most excited about and that are most central to our mission are the ones in which folks are able to get out on the land and enjoy it and are healed by that connection.”

In the view of Deborah D. Cary, it doesn’t take much to excite people about nature.

“When someone has a close encounter with a butterfly or a bear, they want to share it,” said Ms. Cary, the director of central sanctuaries for Massachusetts Audubon Society. “People love beautiful flowers, landscapes and trees. It doesn’t happen as easily as it used to, but we haven’t lost all that.”

“Last Child in the Woods” has been a catalyst for a growing range of activities, from individual efforts to those of regional, state and national organizations.

Peter Lanza, a retired teacher who lives in Leominster, started taking schoolchildren on field trips to explore the outdoors, while conservation, education and health organizations support the Children & Nature Network that was co-founded by Mr. Louv. The group provides updates on the latest research and initiatives on its Web site, www.childrenandnature.org. One program, “Leave No Child Inside,” has been adopted by 40 regions in 27 states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

Mr. Louv promotes the idea that getting outside does not have to be complicated — that exploring the immediate area can open up an entire universe. The National Wildlife Federation’s “Great American Backyard Campout” is one example. On Saturday night, parents and children are encouraged to trade their Web sites for campsites and stargaze, cook out and explore the universe outside their homes. The organization provides all sorts of wildlife and nature guides, recipes and packing lists at its Web site, www.backyardcampout.org.

Ms. Cary sees real progress as the campaign spreads, including an increase in enrollment in Massachusetts Audubon Society’s camping programs. “Our overnight camps have doubled in the last several years,” she said. “Our natural history day camps have increased by 20 to 30 percent each year.”

Mr. Louv maintains that children who spend time outdoors are more self-confident, do better on tests and play more cooperatively.

He allows that some studies need more clarification, but he said the research is “powerfully suggestive” that time spent in nature reduces symptoms of depression and attention deficit disorder.

“Certainly, we need more research,” Mr. Louv said. “But Howard Frumkin, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s environmental unit, says we know enough already to act.”

All of this comes as no surprise to Sue Durham of Holden. Mrs. Durham recalled that when she grew up in the 1940s in New York, she ran out to play and was able to romp in nearby woods. She and her husband, Chris, wanted the same for their children, who were raised on 200 acres bordering conservation land on South Road in Holden. Now, her grandchildren go hiking and camping and watch the wildlife in their backyards.

“If people don’t love nature, they’re going to ruin it,” Mrs. Durham said. “The exercise that goes along with it is important. It’s good for the spirit, the mind and the body.”